United States District Court, D. Colorado
WENSLEYDALE WAY, INC., a New Jersey Corporation and ANRA TRUCKING INCORPORATED, a New York Corporation, Plaintiffs,
v.
FLEET CAR LEASE INC, a Utah corporation registered to do business in Colorado d/b/a Fleet Car Carrier, Defendant.
ORDER ON MOTION TO DISMISS
R.
BROOKE JACKSON JUDGE
This
matter is before the Court on defendant Fleet Car Lease's
(“Fleet Car”) motion to dismiss [ECF No. 26]
plaintiffs' first amended complaint [ECF No. 24]. For the
reasons stated below, the motion to dismiss is DENIED.
I.
BACKGROUND
Fleet
Car is an “authorized motor carrier” that
provides transportation of property in interstate commerce.
Amended Complaint, ECF No. 24 at ¶24. Fleet Car
doesn't use its own drivers or equipment to transport
property. Id. Instead, Fleet Car enters into leases
with independent owner-operators to drive their own trucks to
transport Fleet Car's property. Id. These
owner-operators are basically independent contractors. ECF
No. 27 at 1. Plaintiffs Wensleydale and Anra are such lessors
of trucks and driving services which Fleet Car uses to
transport motor vehicles to retail destinations. ECF No. 24
at ¶24; ECF No. 26 at 2. Although it appears that
Wensleydale and Anra are wholly independent of each other,
their claims and leases with defendant are substantially
similar in all respects. See ECF No. 24 at
¶¶12-13.
As an
authorized motor carrier, federal leasing regulations require
that Fleet Car enter into written leases with owner-operators
called authorized carrier leases
(“ACLs”).[1] 49 C.F.R. § 376.11(a). Section §
376.12 governs the requirements of that lease; it requires
that the ACLs contain, among other requirements, specific
disclosures such as the amount of compensation owed for the
services provided and any deductions that might be taken from
the owner-operators' compensation. In this case, Fleet
Car entered into seven ACLs with Wensleydale and three with
Anra. ECF No. 24 at ¶¶10-11.
Plaintiffs
allege that Fleet Car has a “pattern and practice of
conduct” of violating the leasing requirements found in
§ 376.12. ECF No. 24 at ¶2. Specifically, in their
first five claims for relief, plaintiffs assert that Fleet
Car violated five separate subsections of § 376.12:
• failure to provide rated freight bill on request
(§ 376.12(g));
• unlawful reduction of compensation (§ 376.12(d),
(g));
• failure to provide compensation within payment period
(§ 376.12(f));
• failure to provide insurance and chargeback
information (§ 376.12(j)(2)); and
• failure to provide information regarding deduction for
property damages (§ 376.12(j)(3)). See Id. at
¶¶19-50.
Plaintiffs
filed this lawsuit on November 29, 2017. Complaint, ECF No.
1. In their amended complaint, plaintiffs assert ten claims.
ECF No. 24. As I highlighted above, the first five claims
allege violations of federal leasing regulations. The
remaining claims involve breach of contract claims arising
under Colorado law. These claims include the following:
• breach of contract for failure to pay compensation to
contractor;
• breach of contract for unauthorized and illegitimate
chargeback items;
• breach of contract for unauthorized deductions from
compensation;
• breach of contract for overcharges for insurance
contracts and ...